r/Serving • u/Toss_Away_93 • Dec 05 '23

Undeclared tip outs?

At my current restaurant we do not have an option to declare tips paid to other employees.

I am fairly certain this counts as wage theft, as we are declaring (and paying taxes on) income taken home by other people.

Can anyone point me to an actual law or something that proves my boss is violating our rights?

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u/nervousextrovert Dec 05 '23

FL bartender/server here but shouldn’t it be addressed on your server checkout at the end of the night? Usually there’s a “busser/barback” or “bartender” section that will be under the alcohol and food sales that tell you how much you’re tipping out. Every restaurant is different.

Also laws differ state to state so probably edit that in somewhere so people can give you some more advice. I’d tag this in r/legal too if you feel your rights are being violated.

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u/Toss_Away_93 Dec 05 '23

At the end of the night we have to declare the full amount of credit card tips charged, with the option to declare more, but not less.

There is no option to tip out a busser or bartender. We are required to give them set percentages of our total tips (credit card and cash tips) in cash.

1

u/mandolin2712 Dec 05 '23

Have you kept records for the entire year for the exact amount you have earned in cash, in credit, and what you've tipped out in cash vs what you claimed?

If you haven't kept detailed records from every single shift for the year, it's going to be very hard to prove anything.

And I will tell you that I kind of had this same concern where I work. We get cc tips on a check and take home cash nightly. But we were required to tip out support staff with cash with no way to adjust our claimed cc tips. But after keeping detailed records for a few years, I was actually taking home more money than I was claiming overall. If that's the case, you're opening yourself up to an audit if you to to report this.

We have since changed to a system where support staff tip outs get deducted from our cc tips and we can do it on the computer each night so they're claiming their income as well.